From gcb-skills
Guides design of manipulative experiments, observational studies, and process models for Global Change Biology manuscripts. Helps avoid pseudoreplication and match scale to claim.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/gcb-skills:gcb-study-designThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
GCB reviewers are experts in **ecology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem/Earth-system modelling**. They
GCB reviewers are experts in ecology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem/Earth-system modelling. They
will probe whether the design can actually support a driver → biological-response claim at the
stated scale. This skill covers design choices and their tradeoffs; analysis lives in
gcb-data-analysis.
GCB reviewers probe whether the design can bear the weight of the global-change claim. Use this to locate the soft spot before a referee does and to choose the strengthening move.
| Design soft spot | Reviewer phrasing | Strengthening move |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment confounded with unit | "Pseudoreplication" | Replicate at the inference level; state the unit |
| Dose far above realistic change | "Unrealistic forcing" | Add a realism gap statement or a dose gradient |
| Space-for-time as causal | "Gradient is not an experiment" | Add covariates or a confounder model |
| Single model run | "No structural uncertainty" | Move to an ensemble; partition uncertainty |
| Unstated search protocol | "Synthesis not reproducible" | Pre-register a PRISMA-style protocol |
A team plans an open-top-chamber warming experiment to test a soil-respiration feedback. A weak design warms one large chamber and samples it 30 times, then treats those as 30 replicates — pseudoreplication a GCB referee will flag immediately. The strengthened design uses six warmed and six control plots (illustrative n), warming each by an ecologically realistic +2 C rather than +6 C, and pre-commits to a mixed model with plot as the random unit. Power analysis (illustrative) suggests this detects a 15% efflux change. The realism gap and the scaling limit to ecosystem level are stated up front. Numbers illustrative.
【Design family】experiment / gradient-observational / model / synthesis
【Driver & response】manipulated/measured at what scale
【Replication & unit】level of inference; pseudoreplication ruled out? [Y/N]
【Realism / confounding】dose-duration realism or confounder plan
【Uncertainty plan】measurement + model + scenario
【Next】gcb-data-analysis
../../resources/external_tools.md — experimental, observational, and modelling toolchains../../resources/official-source-map.md — GCB scope (molecular-to-biome, aquatic/terrestrial)npx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin gcb-skillsDefends study design in Conservation Biology manuscripts: ecological sampling, quasi-experimental designs (BACI), modeling/synthesis protocols, and human-dimensions methods.
Tests whether a research idea fits Global Change Biology (GCB) and sharpens its framing by checking for a mechanistic link between a global-change driver and a biological response with broad relevance.
Defends the research design of a Global Environmental Change manuscript across quantitative, qualitative, experimental, and mixed-methods traditions.